


Chasing Ghosts

by SalveSiS



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Amnesia, Except without the 'Space Ranger' part, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Homelessness, M/M, space ranger partners
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 12:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12035661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalveSiS/pseuds/SalveSiS
Summary: Citizens of the Earthen Republic, Lance is seven years old when enemy soldiers overrun his home. Keith is eight when he wakes up in the state of Cuba with amnesia. A chance(?) meeting lands them in the Galra Empire's crosshairs and with no one to turn to except each other.Forced to leave his family and home, Lance clings to his fellow fugitive while Keith struggles to uncover the mysteries of his past-and why being on the run from the Galra is as natural to him as breathing.(If this is their childhood, imagine how messed up their teen years are going to be.Spoiler Alert: Pretty Messed Up.)





	Chasing Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [radiantgem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiantgem/gifts).



> Birthday gift for my friend, radiantgem. Hope you like it, buddy!

Soldiers boxed them into a straight procession. Lance clung onto his mother with one hand and pulled along his suitcase with the other. It was as big and heavy as he was, but he didn’t complain. He couldn’t. In-between his Tiá and papí’s arrest and abuela’s nonstop crying, his mamí had enough to stress about. 

Lance wanted his papí. He wanted his abuela to be happy again. For his mamí and papí to make kissy faces like they always did. He wanted the Galra gone. 

Three days later and he still didn’t exactly understand what happened. One minute, he was watching cartoons with his brother and sister, and the next Cuba state had been conquered by the Empire. Emperor Zarkon’s gaunt face flickered creepily on screen the living room TV, unaffected by the growing panic in Varadero Beach as everyone tried to figure out what was going on. 

Lance wasn’t stupid. He was a big kid, he knew about the war, even if it was more of a dreamlike concept than the reality he was living in. About the Galra Empire being a bunch of jerks, wanting total control of the rest of the world. Countries like Balmera and Puig, taken over years ago, before Lance’s grandparents were even born, their resources being siphoned off (He wasn’t sure what that last part meant, but it couldn’t have been good, judging by the anger on his oldest sister’s face when she talked with mamí about it). 

After more than 200 years, the Earthen Republic was one of the few nations not under the Galra’s rule, like a strong, impenetrable fortress, protecting their own from attack and giving them the freedom to do things like work and school and play. 

The Galra Army arrived less than a day after the broadcast, dragging everyone outside before going into their homes. 

(Lance thought they might have been searching for something, and the longer they looked the angrier they got, as if they couldn’t find it, and he wondered what Varadero Beach could have that the Galra would want)

A few of his neighbors tried fighting them off. His tiá tackled the soldier who’d entered their house while his papí went upstairs to get his gun. Lance’s mother pulled Lance close while Abuela grabbed Luís and Abigail. She reached for Gabi and held her back from jumping in to help. 

There was a blast followed by a pained shout. Tiá Ruth fell to the ground, blood pooling underneath her head. 

Papí flew down the stairs, aiming his pistol at the Galra’s head. The soldier turned around, snatched Luís from Abuela, and pressed the tip of his gun at his head. 

His mother screamed and Abigail burst into tears. Lance watched, frozen, as his papí dropped the gun and was bound in handcuffs. Hoisting Tiá Ruth onto his shoulder, the Galra walked to the door where other soldiers waited and handed them over. 

That was when Lance unfroze. He screamed for his tiá, for his papí, as he watched them get shoved into the back of a truck driving away. He fought against his mamí’s hold, desperate to go after his papí. Quiet, Lance, quiet, she whispered into his ear, voice shaky. But he didn’t listen. He kept on shouting. 

Lance stumbled over a crack in the street. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Abigail and Luís holding Abuela upright as they walked. She’d finally stopped crying. 

His arm was starting to get sore. “Mamí? Can we switch arms?” 

Mamí peeked down at him. “Not now, Lancito,” she murmured. “We don’t want to cause any trouble.” 

“But it _hurts_.” 

“You wanted to carry the luggage,” She reminded him, almost but not quite annoyed with him. “Try and hold on for a little while longer, okay?” 

He huffed but didn’t argue further. Instead, he asked, “Will Papí be at the new house?” 

Mamí’s grip on his hand tightened, then relaxed. “I’m not sure, baby,” she said. “I hope so. You know how cranky your papí gets when he’s away from home for too long.” 

She scrunched her nose. Lance giggled. 

The relocation of Varadero Beach was announced earlier that morning over the radio. Citizens were told to only pack essentials, like identification and clothes. Toys, books, furniture and money, everything else was left behind. Lance didn’t want to go; he loved his house. It had his room with all his toys and posters, his parents’ room where his mamí and papí always let him into the bed whenever he was sick or had a nightmare. The backyard with the tire swing and tiny slide. His abuela grew up in that house. It was _their family’s_ house, not the Galra’s, and they couldn’t take it away from them. 

Gabi said as much to their mamí, who had shaken her head and kept on packing. She didn’t look up as Lance’s oldest sister stormed away in fury.  

His feet ached by the time they reached their new ‘living sector’, as the soldiers were calling it. It was even more of a mess than Gabi and Abigail’s room. The buildings’ windows were scratched and smashed in and their doors were caved in to match. Trash littered all over the cracked streets. The inside of their new building wasn’t any better. The paint on the walls was cracked and peeling off; their kitchen sink didn’t work, and neither did their bathroom. There were only two bedrooms, plus a living room which was completely empty except for a couch and rug. And there was no papí. 

The Galra soldiers warned them there would be guards stationed at the sector boundaries, ready to stop them if anyone tried to leave. Mamí nodded, a tight smile on her face, and relaxed only after they were gone. 

She leaned against the wall, running her hands over her face, and then straightened back up and turned to her family with a bright expression.

“Okay, guys, time to settle in. Mamí, come help me unpack. Gabi, it’s getting late, go put the kids to bed.” 

“What beds? All we have are ratty old blankets.” 

“I packed us some pillows,” Mamí said. “We can make our own beds. It’ll be like…like camping. That sounds fun, right kids?” 

“I hate camping,” Abigail said. 

“You’ve never been camping before, idiot,” Luís retorted, and Abigail moved to push him when Lance bounced in front of her on his way to his mother. 

“I think it sounds fun, Mamí,” he said, and he was only kinda lying because he had always wanted to camp before. It wasn’t real camping, but if his mamí wanted to pretend, he could do that, too (He also pretended not to hear Luís calling him a suck up). “When’s papí and Tiá Ruth coming back?” 

Gabi scoffed. “Are you kidding me?” 

“Gabi-”

“Papí’s not coming back,” Gabi said and Lance felt his lungs close up.  

_Not coming back?_

“ _Gabriella Monica Alvarez-_ ” Mamí snarled. 

“Don’t full name me, Mother,” Gabi stepped forward. “They took him. They took Tiá Ruth. Her head was _bleeding_. You know the stories, what the Galra are like. Do you really think they’re going to help her get better?” 

Abuela broke down into sobs. “That’s enough, Gabi,” Mamí said sharply. “You’re upsetting your abuelita.” 

“She should be upset. So should you. But you’re just standing there, talking about settling in as if we  moved into a fucking penthouse! We shouldn’t be settling in, we should be fighting back!” 

“Lower your voice, chica!” Mamí hissed. “Do you want them to take you too!?” 

Gabi narrowed her eyes. “Maybe I do. At least then I’d have died standing up for myself, not sniveling to a bunch of furries like you!” 

Died. 

“Don’t you dare,” Mamí fumed. “I am doing the best I can-“

Lance’s vision blurred. He gulped violently. 

“You gave them our house, our _house_ , Mamí-”

“I am trying to protect my family!” 

“And how’s that working out for us?” 

He thought he heard someone’s voice, muffled through some unknown barrier pressed against his ears. His stomach was free falling down a bottomless pit, his throat aching and his face starting to feel wet. He vaguely registered a dull pain in his knees. 

He felt someone tug at his hands and he could hear again. “Lancito, my love, it’s okay,” his mamí scooped him into her arms, pressing a kiss to his forehead and his cheeks. He wailed and buried himself into her hug. “It’s okay, honey, you’re okay.” 

“P-Papí-“

“We don’t-“ His mamí looked up at everyone. Luís and Abigail were being held by Abuela, while Gabi hovered over Lance, looking concerned and guilty. “We don’t know that Papí is dead. We saw them take him away. That's it. They didn’t hurt him.” 

His mother’s words helped, but they weren’t enough. “W-W-What a-a-bout Tiá R-Ruth?” 

“…I don’t know,” his mamí said. Her voice broke. “B-But…I’m still here, okay, baby? And so is your brother, and your sisters, and Abuela, and we’re going to get through this. No one else is leaving, not if I have anything to say about it.” 

The storm in Lance quieted. He hiccuped wetly but otherwise stopped crying. 

Mamí was here. His papí was gone but his mamí was still there, hugging and kissing him. Promising things would be alright. And he believed her because she was the strongest, best person he knew, and she would never let anything happen to him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts taken from Bonus 50 Themes Challenge by KohkSoh on Deviantart.


End file.
